Oberlin Kansas

Biography of Walter Ashton Smith

Walter Ashton Smith. Among the able and successful business men of Topeka, Walter Ashton Smith occupies a foremost place, for years being financially and officially connected with large enterprises in Shawnee and Decatur counties. As the vice president and treasurer of the Farm Mortgage Company, Mr. Smith is interested and influential in one of the largest corporations of its kind in the state. Walter Ashton Smith was born at Monroeville, Huron County, Ohio, February 16, 1864, and is a son of Welding E. and Charlotte (Ashton) Smith. Welding E. Smith was born at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in which city he attended … Read more

Biography of Herbert O. Caster

Herbert O. Caster, who, on February 2, 1914, qualified as attorney for the State Public Utilities Commission, and is now a resident of Topeka, had lived in Kansas for thirty-eight years, and is well known over the state, but particularly in his home County of Decatur, where before his admission to the bar he made a fine record for himself as an educator and an energetic factor in other affairs of public importance. When the Caster family came to Kansas in 1878 they took up a homestead in Decatur County. At that time the county was a sparsely settled regiMeigon, … Read more

Biography of Neil Wilbur Rogers

Neil Wilbur Rogers, superintendent of the city schools of Augusta, Kansas, is a native of the state, is a graduate of Washburn College, and since leaving college had become increasingly successful in the field of education. His family have lived for many years in the vicinity of Oberlin, Kansas. Neil Wilbur Rogers was born on his father’s farm there February 24, 1888. His grandfather, John Rogers, was descended from Scotch-Irish people who have lived in the United States since Colonial days. John Rogers was born in 1820, was an early settler in Iowa, and followed farming near Laurel in that … Read more

Biography of James W. Jenney, M. D.

James W. Jenney, M. D. Among many other titles of distinction Dr. James W. Jenny, whose name is professionally known in almost every state in the Union, enjoys that of pioneer physician at Salina, Kansas, which city had been his permanent home for forty-six years. He came here a young man, in the first flush of professional success, earnest and ambitious, and the passage of time had in no way lessened his devotion to medical science. James W. Jenney comes of solid old Quaker stock. He was born in a log cabin on his father’s farm in Huron County, Ohio, … Read more

Biography of Walter E. Pickenpaugh

Walter E. Pickenpaugh is one of the younger generation of business men upon whom had fallen the mantle of responsibility and had already made such headway as to be considered one of Culver’s leaders in business and civic affairs. Mr. Pickenpaugh was born at Jamestown, Kansas, July 22, 1890, twenty-seven years ago. His father, Ed G. Pickenpaugh, was born in Missouri in 1864, grew up a farmer and in 1886 located in Cloud County, Kansas, where he continued in the role of an agriculturist. His wife, Etta A. Stroup, who was born in Eastern Kansas in 1869, lives at Culver, … Read more